Can you Choose Grade for Pre Reg

[tring]

Been looking at the P&O site regards the new cruises and it seems there is only an option to choose the location on the ship (e.g. mid, fore, mid/aft) and not the actual grade or a specific deck.  I am looking at mid/aft on Aurora, but on deck C, so that is a higher grade than mid/aft on deck A (under pool deck).  Does that mean they will charge a bit more for deck C, if I choose mid/aft?  It seems very confusing and was thinking of ringing, but I suspect they will be very busy.

Edited October 14, 2019 by tring

[Harry Peterson]

Pre-register and book through a good non High Street agent. Far better chance of getting exactly what you want.

[tring]

4 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

Pre-register and book through a good non High Street agent. Far better chance of getting exactly what you want.

 

To be honest that is what we have done, but the price, including their extra discount came up higher than I was expecting, given prices on the P&O website and our eligible discounts.  P&O site does not seem to be giving cabin grades though, which is very confusing, so perhaps they only give a price from for a mid ship cabin.

 

I think P&O prices, have probably already discounted the 5% that everyone gets, but I was assuming we would get another 5% discount as Peninsula members.

  

Edited October 14, 2019 by tring

[Harry Peterson]

11 minutes ago, tring said:

 

To be honest that is what we have done, but the price, including their extra discount came up higher than I was expecting, given prices on the P&O website and our eligible discounts.  P&O site does not seem to be giving cabin grades though, which is very confusing, so perhaps they only give a price from for a mid ship cabin.

 

I think P&O prices, have probably already discounted the 5% that everyone gets, but I was assuming we would get another 5% discount as Peninsula members.

  

We had all this confusion marketing from P&O a year or two back!  I do hope they're not at it again. I've always used a certain well-known TA, well recommended on here, but only until the mods delete the name or clues, and I've never ever paid as much as I would have done through P&O because there's usually, for good customers, an additional discount to be had.

 

With that agent I think it would be impossible to pay more than you'd pay with P&O, whatever the circumstances, because, after all, all the bookings go through the P&O booking system in the end.

[terrierjohn]

Also do take into account that the prices quoted by P&O in their brochure are for the lowest grade ones, once you move away from the most forward area you move up the grades. TAs will be giving the correct price for the grade of your choice and it should have all P&O discounts taken into account.

[tring]

19 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

We had all this confusion marketing from P&O a year or two back!  I do hope they're not at it again. I've always used a certain well-known TA, well recommended on here, but only until the mods delete the name or clues, and I've never ever paid as much as I would have done through P&O because there's usually, for good customers, an additional discount to be had.

 

With that agent I think it would be impossible to pay more than you'd pay with P&O, whatever the circumstances, because, after all, all the bookings go through the P&O booking system in the end.

 

Thanks, yes I think thew whole lot is very confusing, not least of which because P&O are not actually quoting for a specific grade, so I was just making assumptions.  I had not logged in before checking either, so assumed price was before discounts, but have logged in now and prices coming up the same, so the system may well have automatically recognised me.  You cannot do anything on the computer without being tagged nowadays - very disconcerting!

 

Thanks for the replies Harry.

 

Edited October 14, 2019 by tring

[tring]

10 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Also do take into account that the prices quoted by P&O in their brochure are for the lowest grade ones, once you move away from the most forward area you move up the grades. TAs will be giving the correct price for the grade of your choice and it should have all P&O discounts taken into account.

 

I had put in mid aft using their online pre reg system this morning, but as some of our cabin grade cabins are midships, that must be the price our cruise is based on.  As you say the cheapest mid ship cabin grade, makes mid aft on deck C.

 

I am just trying to be too clever rather than just leaving it for our agent to sort out.  We have used the same agent many times and have a decent loyalty level with them which gives a good extra discount and they have also been good in other ways e.g. get our choice of cabin.  Using the midship price it looks right and with a good agent discount as well.

 

Thanks for the reply.

Edited October 14, 2019 by tring

[bungle66]

I think P&O might be playing silly buggers again with the 10% past guest discount and I have sent them video evidence this morning to prove it. I made a pre registration booking today for a cruise on Iona in December 2021 and the system quoted me the price and I went ahead. I assumed that once I had added our names and Penninsular Club (Customer) number the 10% would be taken off but it wasn't. I called them only to be told that the 10% had been taken into consideration.  Now bearing in mind I was not logged into P&O on my laptop I tried to make the booking again and this time I videoed my efforts. Without the system having ANY of my details, so not knowing who I am or how many or even if I have ever cruised before the price came out to be exactly the same. I am NOT impressed and have spent the morning figuring out a way to send my video evidence to P&O. Managed it using DropBox and I shall wait to see what they have to say for themselves. 10% is not a massive amount of money BUT if it is offered it MUST be honoured! Anyone else experienced this?

[tring]

9 minutes ago, bungle66 said:

I think P&O might be playing silly buggers again with the 10% past guest discount and I have sent them video evidence this morning to prove it. I made a pre registration booking today for a cruise on Iona in December 2021 and the system quoted me the price and I went ahead. I assumed that once I had added our names and Penninsular Club (Customer) number the 10% would be taken off but it wasn't. I called them only to be told that the 10% had been taken into consideration.  Now bearing in mind I was not logged into P&O on my laptop I tried to make the booking again and this time I videoed my efforts. Without the system having ANY of my details, so not knowing who I am or how many or even if I have ever cruised before the price came out to be exactly the same. I am NOT impressed and have spent the morning figuring out a way to send my video evidence to P&O. Managed it using DropBox and I shall wait to see what they have to say for themselves. 10% is not a massive amount of money BUT if it is offered it MUST be honoured! Anyone else experienced this?

 

That is what I was experiencing, but I am wondering if they automatically knew who I was because of cookies or something.  Let us know if you get a response.  I will leave it for now as packing to go away very soon, but will ring P&O later or tomorrow morning and report back. 

 

We are looking at a long cruise so 10% is a lot, but it is a substantial % on any price.

Edited October 14, 2019 by tring

[Harry Peterson]

13 minutes ago, bungle66 said:

I think P&O might be playing silly buggers again with the 10% past guest discount and I have sent them video evidence this morning to prove it. I made a pre registration booking today for a cruise on Iona in December 2021 and the system quoted me the price and I went ahead. I assumed that once I had added our names and Penninsular Club (Customer) number the 10% would be taken off but it wasn't. I called them only to be told that the 10% had been taken into consideration.  Now bearing in mind I was not logged into P&O on my laptop I tried to make the booking again and this time I videoed my efforts. Without the system having ANY of my details, so not knowing who I am or how many or even if I have ever cruised before the price came out to be exactly the same. I am NOT impressed and have spent the morning figuring out a way to send my video evidence to P&O. Managed it using DropBox and I shall wait to see what they have to say for themselves. 10% is not a massive amount of money BUT if it is offered it MUST be honoured! Anyone else experienced this?

Not again, surely, after all the problems and distrust it caused last time?  I haven't ckecked, but last time they pulled this stunt it backfired horribly:

 

 

[bungle66]

1 minute ago, tring said:

 

That is what I was experiencing, but I am wondering if they automatically knew who I was because of cookies or something.  Let us know if you get a response.  I will leave it for now as packing to go away very soon, but will ring P&O later or tomorrow morning and report back.

Hi Tring, I don't think it can be cookies because mine automatically clear each time I open and close a browser and I don't believe they know who we are. I am travelling with my mother and the system wasn't even clever enough to know her Peninsular Club number and she has always travelled with me before. I shall update as soon as I hear anything from the company. I appreciate that might take as while as they as busy today. Rgds Graham

[bungle66]

5 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

Not again, surely, after all the problems and distrust it caused last time?  I haven't ckecked, but last time they pulled this stunt it backfired horribly:

Yes Harry it was a bit of a debacle last year. Hopefully won't happen this time around!! Rgds Graham

[eddie11]

? Check P&O website prices for lowest grade - vs - an online cruise website price for similar?

Check P&O without identifying self as past passenger

Check P&O with Peninsular Club identifier.

 

Good luck.  I don’t think I have the energy but I’ll be interested if anyone does it

[terrierjohn]

10 minutes ago, eddie11 said:

? Check P&O website prices for lowest grade - vs - an online cruise website price for similar?

Check P&O without identifying self as past passenger

Check P&O with Peninsular Club identifier.

 

Good luck.  I don’t think I have the energy but I’ll be interested if anyone does it

The new website does not appear to provide any facility to tell it you are a past passenger or to input your peninsuler number, at least not on my phone.

It also assumes you want a saver fare and you need to tell it on the last page if you want to upgrade to a select fare.

Edited October 14, 2019 by terrierjohn

[bungle66]

1 minute ago, terrierjohn said:

The new website does not appear to provide any facility to tell it you are a past passenger or to input your peninsuler number, at least not on my phone.

Precisely Terrier! I wasn't given the opportunity to enter my details until the very end of the booking process, so there was no way the system could have known if I had cruised previously with P&O. The 10% discount should have come off the price at the end. In my case it has not.

[Bin man]

Hi going round in circles with the prices on samsung tablet get the option to press 10% past passenger when you then look seems to come out at the saver price which is lower then the select price - the 10% when I look on my  PC  that option isn't there so pity the poor T.A.s who have to sort it out for us 

 

[tring]

I am using desktop.  I know the booking system and you have to keep clicking "change cabin" when it comes up with options of saver vs select.  Subsequently it gives options to change cabin to different locations (fore, aft etc.) as well as change deck an even after you have selected a change, you still have to go down to the bottom of the page and click the red button marked continue.  The system is an abomination.

 

Looking again the second to top price of standard balcony is what we want as it is the 5th of 6 prices (which would align with the number of cabin grades within standard balcony range.  It is also marked as  mid/aft mid or mid/fore and that is were those cabins are.  In fact we have looked through the other cabin prices and they all give the price of the expected grade (within the range of 6 prices for 6 cabin grades) as being present in the sections of the ship as seen in the brochure for those cabin grades.

 

I have logged in and not logged in and am getting the same prices.  My agent has quoted a price £13 less than what shows on the P&O website and says it is with the P&O discount (peninsula numbers checked) and also an extra discount of theirs and I would expect that to be a lot more than £13 for that cruise, even without any P&O discount from the website prices.

[daiB]

I think you are all masochists. Stop using the P&O website and go to a cruise TA who will sort it for you, get you prices,  take a pre-booking and book what you want when the booking process starts. And then give you a better price than P&O. 
 

Cut out all this nonsense. 
 

You know it makes sense.

 

BTW my three cruises were pre booked by 11.00.

 

Happy Cruising

 

Dai

[tring]

Just spoken to my agent who was very helpful.  It seems the full price for our chosen cabin grade as per her system is £5749, so with our -10 % that makes it £5174.10 and the price given to us was within pence of that (obviously adjusted to whole £'s).  She originally thought that price included their discount,  but it now looks like that will be sorted at a later stage (fair enough as we have not booked it yet).

 

So as far as the P&O site goes it appears to be quoting prices after a five percent discount, as our chosen cabin for the cruise in question is priced as £5461.  Hence the price we have been quoted is another 5% off the full price of £5749.  I was looking at  5% off £5461 as seen on the P&O website, which gave me £5188, which is incorrect as it should not be 5% of 5%.  Hence I though the price was £13 more. 

 

So the point is the prices showing already have 5% discount, which makes the prices confusing given they have already published the discounts as 5% and 10% respectively.   

Edited October 14, 2019 by tring

[terrierjohn]

31 minutes ago, tring said:

Just spoken to my agent who was very helpful.  It seems the full price for our chosen cabin grade as per her system is £5749, so with our -10 % that makes it £5174.10 and the price given to us was within pence of that (obviously adjusted to whole £'s).  She originally thought that price included their discount,  but it now looks like that will be sorted at a later stage (fair enough as we have not booked it yet).

 

So as far as the P&O site goes it appears to be quoting prices after a five percent discount, as our chosen cabin for the cruise in question is priced as £5461.  Hence the price we have been quoted is another 5% off the full price of £5749.  I was looking at  5% off £5461 as seen on the P&O website, which gave me £5188, which is incorrect as it should not be 5% of 5%.  Hence I though the price was £13 more. 

 

So the point is the prices showing already have 5% discount, which makes the prices confusing given they have already published the discounts as 5% and 10% respectively.   

That was how it was quoted when we had all the problems, but they forgot to tell the TAs that was the case, which is why there was all the issue as to whether the correct discount had been given.  Hopefully the TA's and their own agents are fully aware of the situation this time. I suppose it makes sense since everyone gets the initial 5% off, its just Penisular club who get the extra 5%, or 10% when its a Peninsular cruises.

[tring]

19 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

That was how it was quoted when we had all the problems, but they forgot to tell the TAs that was the case, which is why there was all the issue as to whether the correct discount had been given.  Hopefully the TA's and their own agents are fully aware of the situation this time. I suppose it makes sense since everyone gets the initial 5% off, its just Penisular club who get the extra 5%, or 10% when its a Peninsular cruises.

 

Our agent said she was filling in a P&O spreadsheet with our details/requirements, so sounded like the deatils go straight to P&O so it is actioned as soon as the said cruise goes on sale.  She said the system comes up with an allocated cabin from those requested, so all she needs to do when the cruise goes on sale is click to save that cabin.  Unlike previous pre reg's of ours (a few years back) our card details have already been taken, which is great as we will be in Livorno when the cruise goes on general sale and we did not want to read out the card details in a public environment.  So all told we are very happy bunnies.

 

Would have been a lot better if they had either shown the full prices or, better still, just said 5% reduction for Peninsula members for most cruises and others pay the correct price, being that shown on their website.  I still rely on websites for the price of a cruise before we book it.  It is not feasible to be ringing an agent to check prices for every cruise you look at when browsing through a brochure.  Anyway need to get the rest of that packing done......

  

[jh1809]

I made sure that I logged into my P&O account before I started the booking process, and the price I was charged was 10% less than that shown on the website. The only weirdness was that, having completed my booking and then received P&O's confirmatory email, about half-an-hour later I got another email headed "A little reminder about your holiday" which said "It isn't too late to complete your online booking. We noticed you were looking at a holiday with P&O Cruises earlier today. We thought we'd get in 
touch to see if we could help you with anything? " There was also a link "Continue your booking". Out of curiosity, I clicked on that, but it just took me to the top-level page for that cruise.

 

Shortly after making my booking, I opened my snail mail to find a leaflet from a well-known firm of travel agents specialising in cruises,  and discovered that I could have booked with them for £140 less than I'd paid.

[tring]

9 minutes ago, jh1809 said:

I made sure that I logged into my P&O account before I started the booking process, and the price I was charged was 10% less than that shown on the website. The only weirdness was that, having completed my booking and then received P&O's confirmatory email, about half-an-hour later I got another email headed "A little reminder about your holiday" which said "It isn't too late to complete your online booking. We noticed you were looking at a holiday with P&O Cruises earlier today. We thought we'd get in 
touch to see if we could help you with anything? " There was also a link "Continue your booking". Out of curiosity, I clicked on that, but it just took me to the top-level page for that cruise.

 

Shortly after making my booking, I opened my snail mail to find a leaflet from a well-known firm of travel agents specialising in cruises,  and discovered that I could have booked with them for £140 less than I'd paid.

If you have only pre registered, I would have thought you could cancel and re pre register with the agent with their £140 extra discount.  We will not have money taken and booking confirmation until the cruises go on sale.  Not entirely sure you can cancel if have pre booked with P&O, but worth asking.  Are you looking at a Peninsula club cruise? that would be 10% less than showing on line as they have an extra 5% discount.  I have just checked and the same prices are still showing on line.

[jh1809]

11 minutes ago, tring said:

If you have only pre registered, I would have thought you could cancel and re pre register with the agent with their £140 extra discount.  We will not have money taken and booking confirmation until the cruises go on sale.  Not entirely sure you can cancel if have pre booked with P&O, but worth asking.  Are you looking at a Peninsula club cruise? that would be 10% less than showing on line as they have an extra 5% discount.  I have just checked and the same prices are still showing on line.

No, not a Peninsular Club cruise.

 

I pre-booked online, and it processes a CC transaction for the deposit, which makes me think that calling the process"pre-registration" is a bit misleading. Whether I could get a refund if I phoned them up and asked for one, I'm not sure.

[Stokie33]

I'm totally confused, got a price through an online ta, put all of the details in, opted to pay a deposit then the rest later, got an email confirmation plus one saying they've taken £2 off my card which will be sorted once they sort out the booking, they've just phoned me to say I've requested a call and haven't pre registered when I have a confirmation number, so not sure if I've preregistered or not and have to wait until tomorrow to see what happens. I know I should of waited until tomorrow